Panic
by Freida Right
Summary: FFIV. What did Edge really think about Rosa and Rydia's appearance on The Lunar Whale? I'm explaoring that question here, along with what happened a little after that. EdgexRydia pairing
1. The Main Story

Panic

It's something dumb and fluffy I wrote about Edge and Rydia. Pretty much it's what happened from when Rosa and Rydia show up on _The Lunar Whale_ until sometimeafter Cecil and Rosa's wedding. It's really not that great... If you like ExR, I think you _might_ like this. If you don't, get out _now_.

Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing,

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"What are _you_ doing here!" Edge shouted when Rydia emerged from the stairwell. He didn't realize that his tone of voice sounded shunning and accusing, but it did. It was his way of attempting to hide the panic that riddled his body like arrows.

"Like I've told you at least _a million _times before, it's _everyone's_ war. Rosa and I are here to help you," Rydia answered scornfully; a scornful answer to what she thought was a scornful question. Edge realized his mistake, but didn't say anything about it. "And besides: I'm the only one who can summon monsters for help," She added proudly.

And how was he supposed to tell her how he felt about the rather rash choice she'd made? By coming along on this mission she'd laid her life on the line; there was a chance that his darling Rydia wouldn't walk out alive. If anything happened to her, he didn't know what he'd do. He vaguely wondered how Cecil was able to stand Rosa being here. Perhaps he drew some sort of force from her that kept him going? Strength? Courage? Hope that they might actually save the Blue Planet? Edge tried to feel something positive coming from Rydia's presence, but harvested only more fear for her life, and doubt that she, or anybody else there, would make it back to the _Whale_.

He just stood there, starring at her for what seemed like hours (though it was really only a few seconds), wondering what in the name of sanity had possesed her to stow away and embark on this dangerous task. She'd more than likey come up with the brilliant idea, suggested it to Rosa (who apparently liked it), and gotten her on board as well. Of course _Rydia_ would do something like that...

Rydia, meanwhile, was looking at Cecil with a pleading look that clearly said, "Please let us come. Please don't send us back." Cecil looked at Rosa, who had a similar expression on her face. Edge hoped that Cecil would say no and take them back to solid ground where they (and by "they" I mean Rydia) would be safe.

"Oh fine," Cecil said instead. Edge fought to keep his jaw from dropping to the floor and screaming out random things. Rydia ran up to Cecil and hugged him as a thank you. "It's frustrating; you two always get me when you look at me like that," Cecil said, sounding irked at caving into Rosa and Rydia _again_. Edge was irked too. Cecil's final decision was the last thing that shielded Rydia's life from various horrible consequences, and now there was no hope for her. He felt so sure that she would die; even though, at the back of his mind, he knew he was being paranoid, and that Rydia could take care of herself, and that she might be alright.

Despite this nagging hope, he felt not cheered.

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Rydia did what she could to avoid Edge for the whole trip. She felt rather insulted by Edge's comment on the _Whale_, the various things he'd said before they left Earth, andthe fact that he hadn't spoken a word to her since then. He hadn't even tried to walk closer to her after that, like he usually did. Cecil seemed perfectly content with Rosa being here. Cecil wasn't worried. Cecil wasn't being paranoid. He seemed comforted, if anything, that his woman was by his side.

Edge seemed ticked off with her. He walked at the end of the line, staring at the ground as he walked. He avoided her as much as she avoided him. He muttered unintelegable things under his breath. But, unfortunately, this angry series of gestures were just his way of covering up his extreme concern for her health, and, obviously, Rydia couldn't see that.

That night, when everyone was alseep, Rydia couldn't sleep. She laid in her blanket with her eyes shut, waiting for sleep to wash over her. But a sudden rustling sound sent her eyes open instantly and she sat up, looking about her. She found only the ninja, sitting by the fire with his head in his hands, muttering something that sounded like a conversation with himself. Rydia snorted and laid back down.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier today," Edge said quickly, and Rydia sat back up. "I didn't mean it quite the way it sounded. I'm sorry that I upset you."

"Why are you being so rude all of a sudden?" Rydia asked. "I didn't do anything, and now you're acting like I've broken something important."

"You've scared me," Edge said saddly. She'd virtually broken his heart; and that was pretty important. To _him_, anyway.

Rydia was taken aback. "How? What did I do?" She asked, trying to rememberanything that she'd done recently that could have set Edge off.

"You had to come along. You had to throw yourself in harm's way, and now I'm afraid that something really bad's going to hapen to you," He explained, slightly embarassed.

"Like what? What's the worst that could happen to a big tough girl like me?" Rydia asked cockliy.

Edge turned and faced her with a disbelieving expression. "We're facing _Zeromus_, in case you haven't noticed. We're about to try and defeat this crazy guy, who probably _can't _be beaten, and you're not worried!" He nearly shouted, but controlled his voice, for the sleeping people around them.

Rydia completely understood now. She still wasn't extremely worried about the fight ahead, but it still sent a shiver down her spine as she saw the folly of her plan for the first time. "...I'm sorry," She said meekly after an uncomfortable pause.

There was another pasue and then Edge said, "Why couldn't you have just stayed where it was safe? Why couldn't you have just stayed out of life-threatening trouble... for just once..." He trailed off and turned back to the fire. "I don't want anything to happen to you," He added. "If anything happened, I don't know what I'd do."

Rydia crawled up and knelt beside him. "It'll be fine," She said, taking his hand in hers. "We'll _all_ be fine," She added, and kissed his cheek before going back to her blankets.

Edge was rather shocked at what had just happened. After all that had traspired earlier, this was the _last_ thing that he'd expected. He gingerly touched the spot where Rydia had kissed him and smiled. Somehow he felt reasurred. For some reason he suddenly felt like everything might be alright afterall. _Might_...

Rydia, curled up under her blanket once more, felt better too. Tiredness swept over her like a wave hitting the beach, and she wondered if that chat with Edge was all that she'd needed. As if all that she'd needed to do was say "I'm sorry", and put everything behind her...

And then she fell asleep.

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The next day, many things happened; a lot of them bad. Upon approaching Zeromus, Edge's confidence in what Rydia had said the previous night began to waver. This would be quite a fight... But he remembered that Rydia was a very strong person, and could take care of herself.

But, in fact, Rydia was the first person to fall. She'd been off to the sides, trying to cast a summon from the shadows where Zeromus wouldn't see her, but he found her and smacked her into the wall. She hit the wall with a loud smack that made everyone turn and look up from what they were doing. Edge half expected her to shake it off, but instead, she fell on her knees with a blank but stunned look on her face. Then she fell on her face with a dull thud and didn't move.

"RYDIA!" Edge screamed. He turned back to Zeromus and yelled as loudly as he could, "I'll make you pay for this, you bastard!" He twirrled his sword around his hand and plunged into the heat of battel with his commrades at his heels.

The fight went down-hill from there. They managed to outlast their foe for quite some time. But as they began to weaken, and Rosa's MP began running out, things began to look very bleak. By the time Kain was KO'd, Rosa's MP was so low that there was nothing that she could do for him. And when Rosa fell, leaving only Cecil and Edge, all hope was definetly lost.

But the pair fought, none the less. It didn't work though; Cecil was KO'd first, and Edge followed only seconds later. As he fell to the floor and went cold, Edge's last thought was, "I failed..."

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As you can imagine, it felt very strange when Edge felt life stirring within him once more. In the distance, there were voices, a few of the familiar, and others not so much. He carefully tried to sort things out and, while doing so, it hit him: the voices were the party's many friends, back in Mysidia, praying for them to regain the life they needed to fight Zeromus once again. He wondered how he knew that, but right now he didn't really care so long as he was getting up.

He looked around and saw that the rest of the party was coming around. Of course, with tremendous joy, he saw Rydia's eyes flutter open and she pushed herslef up. She looked at him and smiled one of her reasurring smiles, one of the few he'd ever seen, and he ultimately resolved to marry her if they both came out alive.

The prayers went on, raising strength, courage, agility, etcetera. However, as his emerald-haired beauty smiled at him, Edge felt hope come sinking back. The hope that had been shattered as she'd fallen to the floor. He knew that hope was something of free will, and you can't obtain it by prayers from other people. If you want hope, you must believe on your own.

"Good," A vaguely familiar child's voice echoed through the room (it was Porom), "Now you can fight again. Make us all proud!" Her voice faded, and the party, fully healed and ready to fight Zeromus again, charged head-long into battle.

This time, the battle went pretty well. With the prayers of their friends backing them up, it was easier than before. The intense battle took quite some time anyway though. In fact, it took them about two days straight.

But it didn't matter how long it took them, because, on the dawn of the third day, Cecil finally delivered a final blow to the monster's chest, and he fell on the floor, dead.

"We did it..." Rosa whispered, scarcely able to believe it. There was a shocked, open-jawed silence as everyone registered what the mage had just said. "We did it!" Rydia whooped, jumpping in the air.

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From the window of the _Lunar Whale_, the Blue Planet had never looked so beautiful. Best of all, it was safe now. _They_ had made it safe; _together_.

"I never want to do that again," Rydia said softly, rubbinga bruise on her jaw. "You'd better not," Edge remarked. "You scared me half to death." "I'll stay as far away from it as possible," She promised.

Edge took her hand in his own and smiled at her, happy that she was still alive. "I told you that I'd be alright," She said mockingly. Edge rolled his eyes. After that, they didn't say much for a while until the continents of the Blue Planetbecame clear. Edge could make out, on one of the islands, the ruins of the kingdom which had once been his home. He thought about how much work lay ahead of him; as the new king of Eblan, his first task would be fixing up the castle. Both his parents were dead, and he had no other realatives. It would be easier if he had someone close to help him...

"You know, Rydia," He began, "When I get back to Eblan, I'm going to have a lot of work to do, but no family to help me do it. I'd really like it if you'd help." "What are you saying?" Rydia asked, thinking that she already knew the answer.

Edge wasn't sure how to answer her question. He took a deep breath and blurted out, "Rydia, I love you and I want you to marry me," before he really knew that he was talking. Rydia's eyes went wide. "Could you repeat that, please?" She asked.

Edge took another deep breath and said repeated much slower, "I love you and I want to marry you." He tried to avoid her gaze, afraid of which look she was giving him this time. "Do you mean it?" She asked. Once again, this was the last reaction that the ninja had expected from the summoner. But when he didn't answer, she walked to his other side and looked into his eyes. To his surprise, her eyes were happy; he'd expected her to laugh at him, or even smack him.

"I wouldn't mind marrying you," She said. "I've grown rather fond of you, myself," She added. "R...Really?" Edge asked, not able to believe what he was hearing. "Really. Since when do I lie to you?" She asked. Edge grinned, and hugged Rydia.

"You don't know how happy you've just made me!" He said. "I think I've got a good idea though," Rydia laughed. Edge was just about to kiss Rydia whne there was a heavy thump beneath their feet. "We've landed! Come on, everyone!" Cecil called.

"We'll finish this later," Edge suggested, and they hurried out of the ship.

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This was pretty fun to write. For those who have already read and noticed errors, I've fixed everything. And I've added quite a bit to the end (a la mythweaver1. You gave me one or two ideas, and look what I did with them! Thanks a ton!) Epilogue coming.

PS: I've never actually finished the game, only seen what happens during the finall battle and elaborated on it. Don't hurt me!


	2. Epilogue

Epilogue

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Four months had passed. It was now the begining of October. The land was turning shades of orange, red, brown and gold. The castle and village of Eblan were still being reconstructed, and the work would continue through the winter, but there was time for one celebration.

Rydia had looked forward to this day ever since they'd returned to the Blue Planet. Now, four long moths later, she starred at herslef in a tall mirror, wondering how she'd gone to a simple little girl in a cut off little town to a queen. When she was seven, she'd never dreamed of wearing something so lovely as her wedding dress. White as a cloud; light as a feather; as beautiful and one of a kind as the diamond on her engagement ring. She hoped that whoever made the dress had been paid well.

"You seem nervous," Rosa said behind her. Rydia had been glad that her friends from Baron had come today. The mage-queen had made the past week run so much easier for her. Rydia sighed. "Not nervous, excited," She corrected, shaking her arms sharply. She felt like running around in circles just so that she could vent her jumpiness. But instead she shook her arms and stompped her feet.

"You know, when you get there, you'll be to nervous to even do anything," Rosa predicted. Rydia knew that Rosa was probably right. She felt excited now, but it would quickly turn to fear. "That didn't happen with you though," Rydia pointed out. "No, it didn't," Rosa admited. "But I nearly fainted." Rydia couldn't quite imagine that. After knowing the mage for so long it was hard to thing of Rosa fainting from nervousness.

"But don't worry. I'm sure you'll do fine," Rosa asurred the bride. Rydia smiled; she felt a little calmer. Someone knocked on the door and Rosa went to answer it. As Rydia pushed a strand of emerald hair out of her face, she heard the door open and then a familiar voice say, "It's almost time. Bring Rydia downstairs." "Alright, Kain. I'll see you in a minute," Rosa said, shutting the door. She quickly took the bouqet of lilies from their vase on the bedstand and handed them to Rydia. She took her hand and led her downstairs. "Let's go," Rosa said quickly.

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Rosa was right. When it was time to walk down the isle, Rydia could barely move. Her eyes wandered about the room, feeling silly and embarassed. But when she saw Edge, standind at the other end of the church, waiting for her with a smile on his face, she found that she could move again. Once again she felt like running, but she forced herslef to walk. She wanted the day to be done right now. She wanted to be Edge's wife _now_.

_She's so beautiful,_ Edge thought. He'd always thought that Rydia was breathtakingly lovely; but today she looked angelic. Clad all in white, carrying lilies in both hands. He never thought that white would look so becoming on her.

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The vows seemed to drag by for Rydia. Once or twice she felt like screaming, "Can we speed this up?" Of course she didn't say anything other than what she was intended to say, but it annoyed her.

"Rydia, you're crying," Egde whispered to her. She hadn't noticed until then. Why was she crying? Was it her overwhelming joy? Or because she wished the ceremony would go faster? She wished that she knew. But she didn't, so she wiped the tears away and went on with things.

"Child, I asked you a question," The elder said to Rydia (no, it was the Eblan elder). "You did?" She said, confused. She didn't hear him say anything. The elder sighed and repeated, "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wdded husband?" Rydia blushed. "I do," She said sheepishly. The elder asked Edge the same question. "Yeah, I think that's already been established," Was his answer. Of course, this induced room-wide laughter. Even the elder laughed; it was a good answer, and it was clearly a yes.

"Very well, then," The elder said. "I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride," He finally said. Rydia felt all the tension melt from her body. At last, the vows were over! Only one more thing left to do...

"I love you," She whipsered as he kissed her. She felt suddenly felt different. It wasn't because she was now someone's wife, or because she was now a queen. She just happy. She was now joined forever with someone who she loved forever.

It made her happy.

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That wasn't such a fab ending. I'll make fixes if you'll send me ideas. But yeah; I'm not so hot with fluffiness. It's fun to write, but ideas come slow to me, I'm sure that you can think of something better. Oh well... I have another love story to conclude, which also involves a wedding, so I guess I should start thinking. Thanks to y'all who read. I've had ever so much fun!

Frieda Right.


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